Anatomy of a
burning so fast and so hot no-one could get near enough to attempt to put it out.’’
Once firefighters have gone 30 metres into the scorched earth from the perimeter, that band becomes the containment line. When crews have achieved that 100 per cent they consider that containment, even if it’s still burning beyond it. get smoke and embers, but it can also be subterranean.
You get a bit of wind and heat and it can suddenly flare up from under the ground, Sutton warns.
MACHINE POWER
Sixteen helicopters, more than a dozen ground firefighting crews, and three aircraft just aren’t enough to get the fires under control. So Sutton’s team have enlisted the help of 20 crew using heavy machinery to put in strategically placed firebreaks in places they anticipate fire creep.
They can’t do the whole 23km perimeter in a day, so they instead focus on the highpriority areas.
In places they can’t get the heavy machinery, they are using ground crew to put in chemical firebreaks. The chemical is a fire retardant that, when exposed to heat, will extinguish the fire.
This is applied with three fixed-wing aircraft.
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
Co-ordinators have resorted to digging water holes in river beds for the helicopters to fill their monsoon buckets. They are also sourcing water from temporary reservoirs set up around the perimeter. Water is trucked into these reservoirs by tankers.
Firefighters use foam where they can because it helps the water penetrate the ground and minimises access of oxygen to